How much paint for a 12x14 room?
A 12x14 room is 52 ft around, and that puts two coats at 2.17 gallons over 380 sq ft of wall, or 2.39 once you allow 10% for waste.
A 12x14 ft room with 8-foot ceilings needs 2.17 gallons of paint for two coats — buy 2 × 1-gallon cans + 2 × quarts. That is 416 sq ft of gross wall, 380 sq ft after deducting one door (21 sq ft) and one window (15 sq ft), covered twice against 350 sq ft per gallon. With the standard 10% waste buffer it comes to 2.39 gallons, about $112 of paint. Having it painted runs about $530 for the walls, or $960 with the ceiling and trim.
Rates and coverage figures updated August 2026. Compiled 2026 from sources last updated 2023–2026.What to actually buy
- 2 × 1-gallon cans + 2 × quarts of wall color — $112, leaving 0.11 gal spare.
- On the walls, rounding up to 3 full gallons instead costs $120 and leaves 0.61 gal you will not use.
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What a 12x14 room is, and what that means for the job
Most three-bedroom houses put the primary at 12 by 14. A queen bed and two nightstands take the 14 ft wall, a dresser sits opposite, and one end is closet. That layout is the reason this job runs a weekend instead of an evening. Nothing in the room is light, and the bed has to end up in the middle of the floor under a drop cloth before you cut in a single corner.
Two windows is normal on a 12x14 with an exterior corner, though the numbers here deduct one window and one door. Closet interiors usually get whatever is left in the tray, so only count a closet as real wall if it is a walk-in. The ceiling often gets skipped in a bedroom repaint: you are changing the wall color, the ceiling is still flat white, and adding it means a separate 168 sq ft at 350 sq ft per gallon. If your room is not this simple, draw it in the planner.
The numbers behind the answer
| Ceiling height | Gross wall | Net wall | 1 coat | 2 coats | 2 coats + waste |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 ft | 416 | 380 | 1.09 | 2.17 | 2.39 |
| 9 ft | 468 | 432 | 1.23 | 2.47 | 2.72 |
| 10 ft | 520 | 484 | 1.38 | 2.77 | 3.04 |
The arithmetic is worth seeing once: 416 sq ft of gross wall comes from 2 × (12 + 14) × 8 ft. Take off 21 sq ft for the door and 15 for the window and you have 380 sq ft to cover. Two coats is 760 sq ft of coverage, and at 350 sq ft per gallon that is 2.17 gallons. Every figure on this page comes from that one calculation.
A 12x14 room needs exactly the same paint as a 13x13 (169 sq ft of floor). All of them measure 52 feet around, so all of them have 380 sq ft of wall to cover and all of them take 2.17 gallons — even though the 12x14 has 168 sq ft of floor and the 13x13 has 169. Wall paint follows the perimeter, not the floor area. Stretching a room in one direction while shrinking it in the other changes how much carpet you buy and not how much paint.
What to buy
Two gallons and two quarts, about $112. The reason to split it that way is what happens if you are wrong. The room is empty, the bed is in the middle under plastic, and running dry at 2.39 gallons means stopping mid-coat on a Sunday evening. Two flat gallons does exactly that. The quarts take you to 2.50 and leave about a third of a gallon sealed afterward, which is the nail holes you fill next spring.
Painting the ceiling and trim too
| Surface | Area | Paint, 2 coats | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walls | 380 sq ft net | 2.39 gal | 2 × 1-gallon cans + 2 × quarts |
| Ceiling | 168 sq ft | 1.06 gal | 1 × 1-gallon can + 1 × quart |
| Trim and baseboard | 49 linear ft | 0.22 gal | 1 × quart |
What changes the answer
Ceiling height moves this room more than anything else, because there is 52 ft of perimeter for the extra foot to run around. At 9 ft the same footprint needs 2.47 gallons, 2.72 with waste, which retires the two-quart plan and buys a clean third gallon. Texture pushes the same way: orange peel costs about 8% more than smooth drywall, and knockdown about 27%, or 2.76 gallons here. Openings pull in the opposite direction, since an opening is wall you never paint. A second window takes 0.09 gallon off and a second door 0.12.
| Change | Paint needed | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline | 2.17 gal | the figure this page answers with |
| 9 ft ceiling | 2.47 gal | +0.30 gal |
| 10 ft ceiling | 2.77 gal | +0.59 gal |
| Orange-peel texture | 2.34 gal | +0.17 gal |
| Knockdown texture | 2.76 gal | +0.59 gal |
| Three coats | 3.26 gal | +1.09 gal |
| A second window | 2.09 gal | −0.09 gal — an opening removes wall you would have had to cover |
| No window at all | 2.26 gal | +0.09 gal |
Doing it yourself against hiring it out
| Route | What you pay | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | $112 of paint, plus roughly $22 of sundries | 2 × 1-gallon cans + 2 × quarts, one weekend |
| Hire it out | $530 for walls only | about 6.9 painter-hours |
| Hire it out, full room | $960 with ceiling and trim | walls, ceiling and 49 ft of trim |
A single room can also fall under a painter's job minimum, which runs $250–$500 whatever the square footage covers — mobilizing a crew costs the same for one room as for five. If you are pricing work rather than buying paint, the painting estimate calculator builds the full line-itemed bid.
A 12x14 room, answered
How much paint does a 12x14 room need for two coats?
2.17 gallons, or 2.39 once you allow 10% for waste. That comes from 380 sq ft of paintable wall, 52 ft of perimeter times 8 ft, minus one 21 sq ft door and one 15 sq ft window, divided by 350 sq ft per gallon and doubled for the second coat. Buy two gallons and two quarts. If your room has more openings than the basis assumes, the number goes down, not up.
Is it cheaper to paint a 12x14 room yourself than to hire a painter?
About $112 in paint against a $530 bid at this size, so yes, if your weekend is free. The $112 is two gallons and two quarts at $40 a gallon, before rollers, tape and drop cloths. The bid prices 380 sq ft of paintable wall near $1.40 per sq ft, inside the $1.00 to $3.00 range for interior repaint work. Check the cost per square foot basis before you compare quotes.
Does a 12x14 room really need the same amount of paint as a 13x13 room?
Yes. Both need 2.17 gallons, because both have a 52 ft perimeter and 380 sq ft of net wall. Wall paint follows the distance around the room, not the area inside it. A 12x14 has 168 sq ft of floor and a 13x13 has 169, and that extra square foot changes nothing, because you are not painting the floor. Any two rooms with the same perimeter and the same ceiling height take the same paint.
How much paint for a 12x14 room with 9 ft ceilings?
2.47 gallons instead of 2.17. The extra foot of height runs all 52 ft around the room, adding 52 sq ft of wall for 432 sq ft net, and two coats of that is 2.47 gallons, or 2.72 once waste is allowed. Two gallons and two quarts is only 2.50, so buy three full gallons. Ceiling height is the measurement people take for granted; put a tape on it before you buy, not after.
Sources and method
Coverage rates come from Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore product data sheets; cost ranges were compiled in August 2026 from HomeGuide and Angi/HomeAdvisor, whose own pages date from 2023 to 2026. Angi owns HomeAdvisor, so those are one source and not two. Quantities on this page assume 350 sq ft per gallon per coat on smooth primed drywall, a 21 sq ft door and a 15 sq ft window; sources put windows anywhere from 10 to 16 sq ft, so change the opening counts in the calculator if yours differ. The full constants are on the paint coverage chart, and the cost basis is set out on interior painting cost per square foot.
This is an estimate for planning, not a quote. Measure your own room before buying.